Accountants find their beans further downtown

Lured by lower rents, the New York State Society of CPAs becomes the latest outfit to make the jump downtown.

The New York State Society of CPAs is becoming the latest in a growing list of tenants to heed the call of cheap Manhattan’s lowest rents and move down to the financial district.

The organization, one of the country’s largest accounting associations with nearly 30,000 members, will move to 14 Wall St. from 3 Park Ave. The NYSSCPA will take an entire 37,000-square-foot floor at the 1-million-square-foot, 37-story tower for 10 years.

Asking rents at the property are in the $40s and $50s per square foot.

The building was acquired last year by the Ukranian fertilizer magnate Alex Rovt for $303 million in cash from a partnership between Capstone Equities and the Carlyle Group, which had previously purchased the property at the top of the market for $325 million in 2007. Capstone remains a minority partner in the property.

The building, despite the losses that its prior owners took on it, has been successful in attracting and retaining several tenants.

Amerigroup Corp. committed to a 165,000-square-foot deal in the building last year, moving its headquarters there from midtown. In 2009, during the depths of the recession, the building also managed to hold on to SOM, the big architectural firm, which renewed its lease for 70,000 square feet.

The NYSSCPA, meanwhile, is the latest tenant to vacate 3 Park Ave. ASME, the mechanical engineering society, left 3 Park Ave. to move to neighbor 2 Park Ave. in January. 3 Park Ave. straddles the border of a midtown south, a neighborhood that has continued to grow in popularity among tenants despite major increases in rents in recent years.

A CBRE Group Inc. team led by Brad Gerla represented landlord Alex Rovt in the deal with NYSSCPA at 14 Wall St. Ellen Herman of Jones Lang Lasalle represented the NYSSCPA. Mr. Gerla could not be reached for comment.

Correction: ASME relocated to 2 Park Ave. in January. The organization's move date was misstated in an earlier version of this article, published Jan. 22, 2013.